


Ill Suited

by irene_addling



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-10
Updated: 2014-01-10
Packaged: 2018-01-08 05:12:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1128739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irene_addling/pseuds/irene_addling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are times when Thomas thinks he was born in the wrong century.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ill Suited

**Author's Note:**

> Some few hundred words of character theory written two seasons ago. (Don't mind my title puns, or my utter inability to be relevant.)

There are times when Thomas thinks he was born in the wrong century.

His name, soggy and old and traditional, and the way no nickname has ever stuck. His itch for a cigarette in places where they've been banned since the fifties. The way he's good with mending small things--buttons, rips, popped snaps--because his mum taught him to hold a needle when he was little, to sew up his own tears after he played. He knows it's weird that he likes it so much, that satisfaction of fixing things with your own ingenuity, but he has difficulty caring why.

Then there's the clothes. Working at a proper five star restaurant has its perks, besides the hefty tips. He wears a suit every day, ties his own tie in a neat Windsor, even puts on a pair of cufflinks that O'Brian sent one Christmas. The moment the jacket is over his back, he feels confident; there's a new set to his shoulders, an ease in the way he talks to customers. In a suit, he can sell anything, never stammering over the names of French sauces or Spanish wines, moving between tables carrying huge trays without stumbling.

It's funny, because he doesn't even like his job, particularly. Minus O'Brian, the people are all horrid (and Daisy can't take a hint). He just likes the suits.

But then he unties the tie and puts the cufflinks back into their box and most times he'll go home, but sometimes he'll go to a club with too-loud music and a particular patronage set, and when he's there sometimes he'll find a guy wearing the perfect too-tight t-shirt who rolls his hips just so. And sometimes, he'll take him home.

Thomas has never been arrested, but he had to bail his brother out once, for some stupid drug thing that Henry claims he's quit but probably hasn't. He remembers stopping to buy lotion on the way back, for the red handcuff burns around Henry's wrists. He remembers the stark oppression of the place, even in the visitor area, the despair hanging heavy. Too much like his mum's room, after she'd started loosing her mind. The heavy, cinderblock walls felt like they were caging in shuffling masses of lost causes

Thomas would rather shove his dress shirts far into the back of the closet than be one of them. He's enough of a lost cause on his own.


End file.
